Read and Reflect
Students need to be able to see patterns and make connections. I think that good teachers already present students with teacher-led comparison scenarios naturally as we explain relationships to students, without thinking of it as a "strategy". We point out how things are alike and different as a part of our instruction. I think most teachers frequently ask students to identify similarities and differences, and I know that I used graphic organizers with my special education students because the visual representation greatly aids in their understanding. When I think back to my days in the classroom, I recognize used many comparing tasks and venn diagram. I also like the idea of using the compairson matrix, which I never used, but think would be very beneficial if students were instructed how to fill them out proporerly. I found that my students were very good at using venn diagrams or making connections in teacher-directed activities, but not as good comparing things when asked to do tasks independently. I have also asked students to classify ideas, and used webs or bubble charts. I spent a great deal of time teaching English, and having students identify metaphors in literature, or look at analogies and identify their similar relationships. I haven't really asked students to create metaphores or analogies, but think that these higher-level thinking activites would definitely benefit special education students in the classroom. Reflecting on my teaching experience, I have had students complete some of these activities, but used very little technology in doing so.
I followed the directions (both via watching the video and printing out the step-by-step directions) and I don't think that this is the user friendly tool that the video refers to it as when it comes to creating Venn diagrams. I would use this site again to create a flow chart for my students, however, never to create Venn diagrams. I had no problems creating my two circles, the titles, or dragging text into the circles. I never could figure out how to make the edges of both circles visable. I only found the options under effects to "sent to back" or "bring to front", which only changed which image was on top. The time I put into attempting to figure out how to show the edges of both circles visable was not an effective use of time. I could have created the exact same diagram in Microsoft Word in significantly less time.
Students need to be able to see patterns and make connections. I think that good teachers already present students with teacher-led comparison scenarios naturally as we explain relationships to students, without thinking of it as a "strategy". We point out how things are alike and different as a part of our instruction. I think most teachers frequently ask students to identify similarities and differences, and I know that I used graphic organizers with my special education students because the visual representation greatly aids in their understanding. When I think back to my days in the classroom, I recognize used many comparing tasks and venn diagram. I also like the idea of using the compairson matrix, which I never used, but think would be very beneficial if students were instructed how to fill them out proporerly. I found that my students were very good at using venn diagrams or making connections in teacher-directed activities, but not as good comparing things when asked to do tasks independently. I have also asked students to classify ideas, and used webs or bubble charts. I spent a great deal of time teaching English, and having students identify metaphors in literature, or look at analogies and identify their similar relationships. I haven't really asked students to create metaphores or analogies, but think that these higher-level thinking activites would definitely benefit special education students in the classroom. Reflecting on my teaching experience, I have had students complete some of these activities, but used very little technology in doing so.
Apply and Reflect
My concept map was created online and here is the link to it:
http://www.mywebspiration.com/view/685357a2ba42
I followed the directions (both via watching the video and printing out the step-by-step directions) and I don't think that this is the user friendly tool that the video refers to it as when it comes to creating Venn diagrams. I would use this site again to create a flow chart for my students, however, never to create Venn diagrams. I had no problems creating my two circles, the titles, or dragging text into the circles. I never could figure out how to make the edges of both circles visable. I only found the options under effects to "sent to back" or "bring to front", which only changed which image was on top. The time I put into attempting to figure out how to show the edges of both circles visable was not an effective use of time. I could have created the exact same diagram in Microsoft Word in significantly less time.